Banquets of the nations : eighty-six dinners characteristic and typical each of its own country / compiled by Robert H. Christie.

  • Christie, Robert H.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Banquets of the nations : eighty-six dinners characteristic and typical each of its own country / compiled by Robert H. Christie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    and heated ghee (clarified butter). After the host has invited the guests to begin, servants pass the edibles, and each of t e quests, as fancy dictates, places one or two of the different kinds of food on the leaf in front of him. Other servants offer the ghee, lentil pulse, rice, and chutnies, which are placed on the same’ leaf as the edibles, and the diner mixes them all together with his hands before commencing to eat. When the salt dishes have been offered twice, the sweets are brought in, the servants walking to and fro between the lines of guests with large dishes, asking them to help themselves; after which they partake of a little plain boiled rice, mixed with milk and curd and flavoured with saffron. Servants with handsome vessels containing watei, and others bearing basins and towels wait upon the diners, so that they may wash their hands and cleanse their mouths, and afterwards resume their ordinary clothes. In a grand and de- corated hall they are given pan (betel nut slaked with lime), attar, and sometimes dancing-girls are present to amuse the company. Many Hindus eat fish, flesh and fowl, but never shell-fish or the flesh of the cow. The Nepalese follow the same ritual, only they eat their food in the place where it was cooked. It is only amongst the lower classes that this is not done. All the salt and sweet dishes remain on the table till milk has been partaken of, after which dried fruits, etc., are eaten, and smoking indulged in. Recipes for some of the elaborate Indian dishes cannot easily be got, as the native cooks are extremely jealous of their knowledge, which in all likelihood has been handed down from father to son for many generations. The Mussulmans, barring pig, have no restrictions as to